British Journal of Religious Education

Religion, Politics and Education

In the wake of rising nationalism, post-9/11 securitization, and growing algorithmic influence on youth identities, religious education faces unprecedented scrutiny and transformation. The digital era has altered how young people engage with religious knowledge, while national curricula remain primary tools for transmitting politically biased values and ideologies. As global debates around secularism, freedom of belief, and ideological control intensify, this special issue offers a timely space to critically reflect on how religion, politics, and education intersect in the shaping of minds.

Globally, national education has a history of being employed as a political tool for various political reasons and interests in almost all of the modern states (Pinar et al., 2004). Since the monopoly of the modern state over educational materials (including religious education) is deeply entangled with political ideologies and identity-building agendas (Apple, 2018). At the heart of this lies the national curricula and textbooks—a central instrument through which societies transmit values, construct civic ideals, and shape collective consciousness. Religion, often positioned as either a moral cornerstone, a cultural marker, or a political instrument, plays a complex and contested role within these educational discourses (Hjelm, 2014).

This contested/potential political role of the national curriculum and textbooks became particularly pronounced in the post-9/11 context, when states reconfigured religious education as both a security concern and ideological tool in the “War on Terror”. For instance, Pakistan’s Islamic studies textbooks were found to promote jihadist ideologies and sectarian biases (Ahmad, 2004; Nayyar & Salim, 2005), which have played a discursive role in normalizing violence based on religion during the post 9/11 situation (Jan et al., 2022). Similarly, textbooks in Saudi Arabia have been changing, from “Wahhabi-centric” curricula to “moderate Islam”, a gradual moderation on subjects ranging from women empowerment to embracing religious diversity and tolerance (Parawati, 2024). Across various contexts, religious education has played a discursive role in fulfilling diverse political interests and goals.

This special issue will explore the intersectionality of religion, politics, and education to analyze how religion is represented, framed, and instrumentalized within national curriculum discourses, and how such representations interact with political projects, cultural hierarchies, and societal transformations. As states navigate the complexities of globalization, rising religious diversity, and a digital media-saturated world, religious education becomes a potent space for negotiating belief, identity, and ideology. More specifically, it will analyze the discursive role of religious education in serving different political interests and goals for various political reasons in today’s polarized global environment.

We invite contributions that critically engage with how religious educational materials, both teaching and learning, reflect and reproduce dominant political ideologies or “taken-for-granted” assumptions, including “ideology”; the role of religious education in promoting (or restricting) pluralism and critical thinking; and how digital technologies, global conflicts, and social media influence the teaching and perception of religion.

This special issue is uniquely positioned to contribute to global debates on religion and education in era marked by rising religious nationalism and authoritarian populism; transnational migration and diasporic pluralism; digital polarization and algorithmic shaping of belief; curricular securitization in post 9-11 and post pandemic contexts. While the politicization of religious education is not new, its contemporary forms have taken on novel modalities. Religious ideas are now mediated not only through national textbooks but also via online platforms, influencers, memes, digital sermons, and algorithmically curated content that often reinforces ideological silos. Similarly, global youth increasingly construct religious identities in ways that transcend (or clash with) national narratives, particularly in diasporic, refugee, or multi-faith classroom settings. We also emphasize emerging dimensions of religious education, including:

• Environmental and ecological discourses within religious Education/curricula
• Postcolonial and decolonial perspectives on religious representation
• Inclusion/exclusion of indigenous and non-Abrahamic worldviews
• Intersections with disability, neurodiversity, and affective pedagogies
• Digital algorithms and the polarizing effect on religion and the disruption of clerical authority

By including both Global South and Global North case studies, the issue provides a comparative and transnational lens that captures diverse experiences of how religion, politics, and education co-evolve. This special issue broadens the scope of inquiry in religious education by engaging with contemporary transformations that extend beyond formal schooling. It investigates how digital media, climate crises, and post-pandemic shifts in education disrupt traditional religious pedagogies and reconfigure student engagement with faith, morality, and ideology. It also asks how curricula reinforce or resist dominant power structures, be they colonial, patriarchal, ethnonationalist, or neoliberal.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Politicization of religion through/in national curricula.
• National identity formation based on religion in textbook discourses
• The legacy of religious histories of education systems
• Religious education as a tool of securitization and counter-extremism during post 9/11 context
• Religion and science in the classroom: conflict, compatibility, or co-option?
• Religious literacy and algorithmic influence on youth belief systems
• Religion, Education, and Political Polarization in the Age of Disinformation
• Platformed religion: TikTok theology, YouTube preachers, and religious memes
• Postcolonial critiques: whose religion counts in religious education?
• Religious education and epistemic injustice: marginalized spiritualities
• Inclusion of indigenous and non-Abrahamic beliefs in curricula
• Inclusion of the Hundred Schools of Thought (e.g. Mohism) in religious education
• Curricular reframing between schools of thought (reason) and religion (faith)
• Diasporic identities and religious education in migration contexts
• Religious education and eco-theologies: faith-based responses to the climate crisis
• Teaching religion in polarized, post-conflict, or multi-faith societies
• Religious education and neurodiverse learners: inclusive or excluding?
• AI, chatbots, and religious authority: challenges to traditional pedagogy
• Social media activism and grassroots resistance to religious marginalization

We particularly welcome interdisciplinary approaches that are drawn from education, religious studies, sociology, political science, media studies, and critical pedagogy. All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review in accordance with the journal’s editorial standards.

References

Ahmad, I. (2004) « Islam, democracy, and citizenship education : An examination of the social studies curriculum in Pakistan,” Current Issues in Comparative Education, 7(1) :  10.52214/cice.v7i1.11389 (accessed 9 December 2025).

Apple, M. W. (2018) (Ed.) Ideology and Curriculum (4^th Edition), New York: Routledge

Hjelm, T. (2014). Religion, discourse and power: A contribution towards a critical sociology of religion. Critical Sociology, 40(6), pp. 855–872.

Jan, Q., Xie, Y., Qazi, M. H., Choudhary, Z. J., & Ul Haq, B. (2022) “Examining the role of Pakistan’s national curriculum textbook discourses on normalising the Taliban’s violence in the USA’s Post 9/11 war on terror in South Waziristan, Pakistan,” British Journal of Religious Education, 44(3), pp. 246–255.

Nayyar, A. H., & Salim, A. (2005). The subtle subversion: The state of curricula and textbooks in Pakistan Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics. Sustainable Development Policy Institute.

Parawati, E. D. (2024) “The Global Impact of Wahhabism: Saudi Arabia’s Ideological Expansion and Geopolitical Influence,” Islamic Thought Review, 2(2), pp. 93–104.

Pinar, W. F., Reynolds, W. M., Slattery, P., & Taubman, P. M. (2004) “Understanding Curriculum as Political Text,” Understanding Curriculum, 17, pp. 243–314.